I hope you're all doing well and that you're excited for the upcoming Autumn! It's still pretty warm where I am, unfortunately, but the leaves are indeed starting to change color. 🍂

I have a few updates for you, including the first Dottie iteration, some final fixes on Laisy (nearly there!) and a few more items on the shipping of Monty, namely our cross collab pins. I also have a more personal and journalistic update included at the bottom - it's highly recommended to read for any artist looking to make their own plush, anyone looking into starting to crowdfund, or anyone looking to grab some popcorn and read the ups and downs of being a small business!

We have waited a long time, and I am happy to say that Dottie is looking great! No costume yet, but I am always happy to nail down the full body design, first. Just one large change and one small to make: The cheek and hair need that funky squiggle, instead of Laisy's swirl, and the antennae should be shorter with a poofy longer yellow fabric used.

I have asked for the wings to be more embroidery-based than print, because one of the aims of Plushpanions is to be tactile and interesting. Not just something cute to look at, but a plush that is detailed and unique to hold and feel.

This blazer is taking a lot of back and forth, but the end result will be perfectly worth it! A lot, lot,of the blazer's design is ensuring that the front button is child safe - it's more difficult than you would think! As of now, all but two of Laisy's accessories are approved and it is just the blazer we have left to really tackle! 🎉

Here is a preview of some of the recently design-locked accessories - Laisy's glasses and the map! The pencil just needs an adjustment on one of the embroidery thread colors so I consider that basically complete, and the pants were perfect from day one!

Monty has officially casted out to sea! He has been for a little while, and now... we wait. 👀 After his arrival, orders with Monty only will be getting sent out - however there is one unfortunate caveat that I would like to be upfront with you about. If the collab pins don't arrive before Monty does, any orders that include the Collab Pin will be held from shipping until the collab pins are received. Shipping can only be completed when all items included in an order are packed.

Sadly, our lovely collab partner, ThePrinceFizz has not been feeling well as of late, and I only feel comfortable sharing this here, because he has announced as much on his own social media. This may or may not cause delays in receiving our Monty collab pins because, while Fizz was able to confirm when the pins were leaving customs (to arrive to him from the manufacturer) he has been unable to confirm yet whether they are on their way to me. He said that he would ship them to me as soon as they arrive so I presume that they are indeed on their way, but I cannot yet confirm 100%, and I wanted to keep you all in the loop. Please keep Fizz in your thoughts - and to just say here, please do not contact him in regards to the pins, as I am doing more than enough "kind pestering" for the lot of us. 😅 

I have a few new, and a few old things, that I just simply wanted to write down for those that may want to read. These musings might be helpful to those who want to pursue their own art, designs, or plushies - or they may simply be interesting to those who like to view the rollercoaster of running a small business, with popcorn in hand.

♻️ Printer, Cricut and Stickers.. Oh My!
Firstly, I splurged for a new Epson EcoTank Inkjet printer as well as my very own Cricut Explore 4. This means that I can, and am, printing my own stickers! 🎉 This new equipment allows me to be more thoughtful about package branding and save on business cards, stickers, and the like. This comes with a whole new world of hassles, but also chances to learn. Mainly, about color profiles. Sometimes I forget that printing is a special talent, but it truly is, as there's only so much you can do with CMYK ink and you have to learn to speak to the software, and to the printer hardware to get anywhere close to your original digital artwork colors. All of that to say... I've been printing for days and I am only now getting close to the proper colors! If you're an artist, or even just enjoy printing at home, don't forget about everything that actually goes into printing - It's not just ink! 😅

To prep for the incoming sticker avalanche, I have already even purchased my own eco-friendly sticker paper, to align with my eco-friendly image. My current stickers are recyclable, and I wanted to find the same quality materials, but fully recyclable sticker paper is incredibly difficult to find. I have to consider 1. Where the paper comes from, 2. What the sticky stuff is made of, and 3. The final result of the two combined. What I mean is, sometimes paper is ethically sourced and claims to be 100% recycled and is 100% recyclable, but that often means that it needs to be specifically recycled, as to not gunk up an entire recycling machine! A lot of cities in the US still barely have recycling, let alone actual recycle sorting, so I like to be extremely conscious of this. Thankfully, EcoEnclose has their own Zero Waste liners! These are blank, curbside recyclable, liners (fancy word for sticker paper... or maybe instead, sticker paper is a common term for paper liners 🤔). Curbside recyclable is the golden standard because, it can indeed just be tossed in with your regular cardboard or paper recycling without having a negative effect to the machine! My newly handcrafted stickers will be used for fun products, as well as branded packaging.

🎉 Setup Update!
Speaking of that, I am getting an upgrade all around! I am working on updating my event booth setup with a new color palette, that is still earthy but more joyful. With that, I have a new tablecloth, some grids to build vertically, higher quality print signs (that won't blow away in the wind 😮‍💨), and some fabrics that hang up to tie the whole thing together! I'll share photos after my next show, so you'll always know how to find me, if you come to one of my shows. The next event where you can find me is Nightmare Weekend Richmond, October 17th-19th. I'll be debuting a new "gacha game" to win some free Famous Slasher Popsicle stickers, so stop on by!

📜 Refund from Joyus Toyus
As you may, or may not know, when I originally decided to design my first plush (Kidd Krampus) I worked with a company called Joyus Toyus. This company is a company in the US that would communicate with manufacturers in China to create a plush product, varying for the need of each client. Unfortunately while working with them, there were repeated mistakes, delays, and an overall lack of full and satisfying communication that left me needing to separate from them and go to who we are working with now. There are a lot of details to this story, so if you would like to read more about the specifics, check out this article/update from the Krampus campaign at the link below: 🔽

Continuing;
I feel a need to report on this specifically, because I have had more than one company/small business reach out to me, based on this specific update. These other parties have had issues with Joyus Toyus, as well, of varying degree. That is a separate story entirely (and one that I won't fully disclose for now), but what I really intend to write here is my personal update to you all, because while sometimes due to update silence, it may feel like I am not working hard for the Eclipse Pals, or Plushpanions, it is in fact the exact opposite. I am thinking about and working as hard as I can on Plushpanions at all times, but sometimes there are issues just outside of my control, and hiccups within the process - I just feel like I am hitting a fair amount recently, and I wanted to be transparent with you all.

Sometimes plush edits take a lot longer than anticipated, sometimes edits to a prototype get missed entirely in fabrication, and sometimes items get lost in the mail. I wanted to share this because when a lot of artists and small businesses only post their regular positivity, it feels like everything is on time and is going perfectly well, however that's just not how it is a lot of the time. I wanted to shed some light so that if other artists see this, and crowdfunders just as well, they know how much sweat, blood and tears goes on behind the scenes - literally and figuratively!

With that said, here is where a lot of my tears are going right now (back to the refund business): I requested my refund with Joyus Toyus in July of 2024, and they still owe me about ~83% of that refund. They don't make consistent repayments, they aren't communicative and they have not been working in true good faith with me to resolve the refund, though many opportunities have been given to them. But I digress. My story is like many others that got involved with them and I cannot recommend Joyus Toyus' "services". If Joyus Toyus reads this and is upset by the truth of the matter, please know that I would be more than happy to update this article with more positive news, once my refund has been paid in full.

Now you lovely Wild Ones, before you start lighting up the comments with helpful suggestions, please don't worry, as I am working on it myself with a full team of support on my side. 😊 Going through this is a long process, but one that I hope pans out, so that I am able to close the chapter personally and finally have those funds to put into Plushpanions once again.

Overall, I am hoping that this illustrates that the Krampus plush, even with an unprecedented roadblock that no one should have to face, was completed with full detail and effort to give you an outstanding and eco-friendly plush. The Eclipse Pals are just the same, all the time taken between updates represents corners not cut in order to give you a tactile and amazingly interactive plush companion that is out of this world!


I am really looking forward to our next adventure, with the Fabled Friends and that's all for now!

Oh yeah, don't forget to join the Fabled Friends launch party! 🎉 We already have 92 joined, so will you make it 93? Maybe we can reach 100 before October 1st! 👀

Best & More Updates, Soon!
L 💚

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